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NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
November 7, 1885

The last issue of the Nation contains a new attempt to picture the terrible state of religious feeling at Harvard. Again we hear the antiquated wail that our "study of geology and of the doctrines of evolution" have slowly disintegrated our belief in the "old Bible stories of creation." We are represented as believing that "all religion is a sham, well enough for our ancestors and for old women, but, in the light of modern science, a mere delusion." The pen of the enlightened writer does not pause before that tabooed subject, "compulsory prayers." How pleasing and how refreshing is it for us to hear again that the present system of prayers inspires us with "opposition and dislike," and that our feelings "find vent in ridicule." But this aggressive "alumnus," as he calls himself, does not hold to the "mediocritas aurea" which he urges upon others, but adds that we not only dislike prayers, but "lie to get rid of them." We are glad that our internal condition has been so vividly portrayed to the public, and trust that the writer who has so kindly interested himself in the matter knew at least what he was writing; if he did not know that there is no basis whatever for the greater part of his terrifying declaration.